UH Manoa Law School to celebrate Earth Day with public lecture on climate change

The William S. Richardson School of Law‘s Environmental Law Program and its Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy (ICAP) partners will celebrate Earth Week with an exciting climate change public lecture on Monday, April 20, at 5:30 p.m. in Law School Classroom 2.

Featured speaker is the center‘s new director and associate professor of law, Maxine Burkett, who will address the topic, "Helping Vulnerable Communities Adapt to Climate Change." A courtyard reception will immediately follow the lecture, which is free and open to the public.

Professor Burkett attended Williams College and Exeter College, Oxford University, and received her law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. At UH Manoa, her courses include Torts, Climate Change Law and Policy, Environmental Law, Race and American Law, and International Development. She has written in the area of Race, Reparations, and Environmental Justice.

Currently, her work focuses on "Climate Justice," writing on the disparate impact of climate change on poor and of-color communities, and the United States‘ ethical and legal obligation to these communities nationally and internationally. She has presented her research on Climate Justice throughout the nation, West Africa and the Caribbean.

As the director of ICAP, she leads projects to address climate change law, policy, and planning for island communities in Hawaii, the Pacific region and beyond.

The Center for Island Climate Adaptation and Policy facilitates a sustainable, climate-conscious future for Hawaii, the Pacific, and global island communities through innovative research and real-world solutions to island decision-makers in the public and private sectors. ICAP is an interdisciplinary partnership of the Law School‘s Environmental Law Program, Sea Grant, College of Social Sciences, the Hawaiinuiakea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences and Technology.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the law school‘s Ka Huli Ao Center for Excellence in Native Hawaiian Law, the Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies and the Department of Urban and Regional Planning.